​The 10th annual Mississippi Blues Marathon is coming to downtown Jackson on Jan. 7, 2017. The Blues Marathon, which is the only marathon in Mississippi with live music playing during the race, got its start in 2008 with the support of Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Mississippi. The marathon raises money for the Blues Founding, which helps support local blues musicians.

​This year's marathon kicks off at 7 a.m. at the Art Garden at the Mississippi Museum of Art (380 S. Lamar St.), at the intersection of Lamar and Pascagoula streets. The race features a full marathon, half marathon, and quarter (called the Quarter Note) and relay events, with a seven-hour time limit for the full and half marathons. A kids race takes place at 9 a.m.

On January 5 and 6, the 2017 Blues Expo will take place at the Jackson Convention Complex from 3 to 6 p.m. on Thursday and 9 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Friday. The expo features area vendors, food and a chance to meet with other race participants. The Blues Crawl takes place on Saturday night after the race at 7 p.m. A shuttle will run from different downtown locations every 10 minutes until midnight. Non-race participants can purchase wristbands for $10, and race participants can do the crawl for free. This year's Blues Crawl includes locations such as Hal & Mal's, The Iron Horse Grill, One Block East, Fenian's Pub and more.

For more information, course maps, to register as a participant and to see the list of businesses partcipating in the Blues Crawl, visit msbluesmarathon.com.